Kalmari
Kalmari Medium-Size Outsider (Law, Evil) Hit Dice: 3d8+3 (15 hit points) Initiative: +0 Speed: 20 ft., Fly 20 ft.(average) AC: 26 (+16 natural) Attacks: Bite +1, Whip +1 Damage: Bite 1d10+1; Tail 1d6+1 Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Swallow, Entangle Special Qualities: Damage Reduction 15/+2, SR 30, host body vulnerability, immunity to death, magic insensitivity. Saves: Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +4 Abilities: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 7 Skills: Bluff +5, Intimidate +2, Intuit Direction +4, Appraise +8 Feats: Power Attack . Climate/Terrain: Any Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: Double Standard Alignment: Lawful Evil Advancement: 4-6 HD (Medium) 7-9 HD (Large) Kalmari are creatures native to Thuldanin, the second layer of the plane of Acheron. In their natural forms, they seem to be thick, vile clouds with enormous tooth-filled maws, a sinuous, prehensile tail, and two unblinking yellow eyes that move about the surface of their amorphous bodies as they track their foes. Kalmari are rarely found in that form, however. More commonly, they inhabit another living creature's body, or a non-living body built with places for the aberration to articulate its jaws and tail. In its native layer it will appear as a bizarre conglomeration of trash and spare parts, biting at its opponents with teeth made of nails and torn metal and lashing out at them with tails of braided power cables and discarded chain mail. Combat Kalmari attack viciously and without remorse, Biting and lashing at their opponents every round. Magical Body (Ex):The kalmari is made of raw magical power. It uses its Charisma score in lieu of its Strength score when making “physical” attacks and dealing damage, including its bite, tail, and grapple attacks. Gaseous Form (Ex):Kalmari are naturally in gaseous form , as the spell cast by a 10th-level sorcerer, except they cannot assume any other form, are not affected by weather or gusts of wind, can move through water uninhibited, do not lose access to supernatural abilities, and have the speed listed above. It is this form that in part grants them a damage reduction of 20/+2. Spell Immunity (Ex): Kalmari are immune to all spells and spell-like abilities, although they may become vulnerable to those spells and spell-like abilities originating from magic items as detailed in their vulnerability special quality below. Whip Tail (Ex): The kalmari has a whip-like tail with a reach of 15 ft. It can wrap around an enemy’s legs or other limbs, allowing the kalmari to attempt to start a grapple with Medium-size or smaller creatures as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. The tail may make trip attacks and gains a +2 bonus on opposed attack rolls when Entangle (Ex): When a natural 20 results from the tail's attack roll, no damage is done but the victim is entangled. An entangled victim is allowed one strength check (DC 13) to escape; otherwise a successful disarm action can force the kalmari to let go. If everything else fails, only severing the tail itself by inflicting 10 points of damage there will free the entangled victim. Swallow (Ex): The kalmari's most fearsome ability is that, on any attack roll (for the kalmari's mouth) that is 4 or more higher than the AC it would need to hit that opponent, the character is swallowed whole. For example, if the kalmari was attacking a character with an AC of 12, any natural roll of 16 or greater would mean that the target had been swallowed whole by the creature. Swallowed creatures will be digested in a number of rounds equal to their experience level or hit dice. Swallowed victims are helpless. After this time, the victim is gone forever and cannot be raised or ressurected, though wish will still work. The kalmari will not attempt to swallow a second target until the victim is dead. Host Body Vulnerability (Ex): A host body retains its normal Armor Class (which is usually significantly less than that of the kalmari itself), but can withstand only 10 points of damage before it is rent asunder as the kalmari erupts from it, killing the host. The noise made by an emerging kalmari is that of a thousand snakes hissing at once. A living or sentient target of a kalmari's possession must be willing, though that decision could be coerced (through force, blackmail, or magic). A nonliving, nonsentient target can be posessed automatically as a free action. Outside Acheron, kalmari without a host made of native materials must find one within 10 minutes or be banished back to their home plane. Immunity to Death (Su): While physical weapons and even magic can occasionally damage the beast, they cannot kill it. If reduced to 0 hp by such weapons, the kalmari is merely imprisoned within a nearby inanimate object, which it will attack and destroy when it has healed back. Off-plane, kalmari reduced to 0 hp or less are banished back to Acheron. In either case, kalmari harbor grudges. Magic Insensitivity (Ex): The only vulnerability a kalmari possesses is that it cannot digest magic in any form. This is related to its resistance to magic spells; it seems to have developed as a way of protecting it from the often uncontrolled magicks still lurking in the broken artifact fields of Thuldanin. All magical items worn or carried by a victim the kalmari has swallowed are regurgitated by the beast the round after ingestion. Offensive magical items such as weapons, wands, staves, and so on are then capable of damaging and destroying the beast regardless of their enchantment. Weapons are granted an additional +2 attack and damage bonus vs. the creature and the spell-like abilities of wands, rods, staves, rings, and so on now inflict damage on the kalmari normally: the beast's Spell Resistance and Damage Reduction no longer applies to those items. If, for example, the kalmari ingests and rejects a wand of fire, fireballs from that item can kill the kalmari. Fireballs from any source other than that wand are still subject to the creature's normal spell resistance. Note that any items swallowed and rejected by one kalmari do not gain these benefits against any other members of the species. Skills: Kalmari receive a +8 racial bonus to Search and Spot checks. *Due to their gaseous form, kalmari gain a +20 bonus to Hide checks in areas of mist, smoke, or other gas. Rarely, a kalmari may even treat such a rejected weapon as its completion, its carefully guarded charge (see below). Kalmari Society It is thought that originally the kalmari lived exclusively in the void between Thuldanin's cubic continents, hunting birds and diving down to a surface to gather carrion. Over time they developed an affinity for the cast-off junk and weaponry littering Thuldanin's surface, and this affinity became the addiction the kalmari call completion. The creatures choose an interesting-looking relic or war machine of the sort that naturally collects on their native layer and guard it fanatically, creating a solid form nearby in order to better relate to their charge. For a kalmari, life without such a duty is empty, unbearable, and incomplete. As a result of this peculiarity, other races have found the creatures make excellent guardians. The secret of summoning a kalmari has even been discovered by a few conjurers on the material plane. Kalmari on planes other than Acheron must have a living or non-living body composed of material native to the plane. A kalmari within a host body can exist there indefinitely. A kalmari is very reluctant to leave its charge. Even when they feel the urge to reproduce (about once a year), they do it near (or ocassionally in) the object that completes them, splitting off a small part of its substance and inserting it into a nearby object, where it gestates for 1-2 years, emerging as an adult kalmari. A kalmari will battle with its parent for the right to be completed by the same charge; usually the inexperienced young one is driven off to find a charge of its own. Kalmari cannot reproduce outside Acheron. Variants In Avalas, the first layer of Acheron, feuding factions build combat machines especially designed to house kalmari. Because of their greater quality, they do an extra point of piercing or blugeoning damage per attack. The bladeling conjurers of Ocanthus summon kalmari into even more deadly devices, whose whirling knives cause an additional 1d4 points of slashing or piercing damage for every attack they make as long as the hosts last. Occasionally wizards of Acheron's other layer, Tintibulus, will summon kalmari to guard their spells and treasures. These usually end up with standard statistics, unless their hosts are enchanted. In Tintibulus, they most often use living spell-bound slaves, rather than machines Realmslore Only one instance of a kalmari existing in the Realms for any length of time is recorded at this time. The creature apparently was summoned by the wicked wizard Cassana to serve as a “pet.” In 1357 DR, Cassana lent use of the creature to the Iron Throne, an illicit mercantile cabal. The Throne planned to use the creature to tighten its grip on Shadow Gap, an important mountain pass. They placed the kalmari in a human shell (a minor Throne functionary unaware of the true cost involved). However, when the functionary publicly announced the closing of the pass and admitted to the murder of a contact of a local group of adventurers, a member of the group attacked the man. The warrior’s blow (with his magic sword) split the body wide open, allowing the kalmari to escape. The creature promptly swallowed the warrior whole, sword and all. The kalmari rejected the sword, which was left untouched by the fleeing crowd. The sword was recovered by a band of heroes that included Alias (NG female Alias vessel human Ftr10, see above), the tattooed swordswoman. Alias saw the above-described events in a dream. During their time in Shadow Gap and not long after Alias’ dream, the kalmari entered their camp and attacked. Alias used Cassana’s sigil, tattooed on her arm, to hold the wizard’s creature at bay until the halfling Olive Ruskettle (CN female halfling Rog10) retrieved the late warrior’s sword. Olive and the saurial paladin Dragonbait (LG male finhead saurial Pal10) then used the ingested-and-rejected weapon to destroy the creature. Even though Cassana herself has perished, the secret of summoning such outsiders will likely find its way to other unscrupulous wizards’ hands. Category:Outsiders Category:Inhabitants of Thuldanin